(RIPANENSIS).

Diocese in Ascoli Piceno, Central Italy. The city is situated on five hills, not far from the site of ancient Cupra Marittima. The modern name comes from Ripa trans Asonem , "the other bank of the Asone". A castle was erected there in the early Middle Ages, and enlarged later by the bishops of Fermo, who had several conflicts with the people. In 1571 St. Pius V made it an episcopal see, naming as its first bishop Cardinal Lucio Sasso and including in its jurisdiction small portions of the surrounding Dioceses of Fermo, Ascoli, and Teramo. Noteworthy bishops were: Cardinal Filippo Sega (1575); Gaspare Sillingardi (1582), afterwards Bishop of Modena, employed by Alfonso II of Ferrara on various missions to Rome and to Spain, effected a revival of religious life in Ripatransone; Gian Carlo Gentili (1845), historian of Sanseverino and Ripatransone; Alessandro Spoglia (1860-67) not recognized by the Government. The cathedral is the work of Gaspare Guerra and has a beautiful marble altar with a triptych by Crivelli ; the church of the Madonna del Carmine possesses pictures of the Raphael School. The diocese, at first directly subject to the Holy See, has been suffragan of Fermo since 1680.

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